1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printed circuit board carrying electronic parts on a printed board is widely used for electric appliances. In determining the layout of the electronic parts on the printed board, the CAD software is generally used as a design means.
The designing process using the CAD software includes the steps of inputting a profile, selecting parts, arranging parts and wiring. In these steps of inputting a profile, selecting parts and arranging the parts, the size of the printed board and the range in which the parts are mounted are determined by taking into account the specifications and the performance of the device for mounting the parts in addition to the structure of the products and the number, type and the shape of the parts used.
Also, the height limit of the parts is determined by taking into consideration the convenience of incorporating the printed circuit board in the product housing. Based on the data obtained from the steps of inputting the profile, selecting the parts, arranging the parts and wiring described above, the wiring pattern and the layout of the parts on the printed board are determined.
The wiring pattern thus determined is formed actually on a board thereby to form a printed wiring board. Further, a printed circuit board is fabricated through the step of mounting the parts on the printed wiring board and the step of soldering the terminals of the parts and the wiring pattern to each other.
Also, in the step of mounting the parts, a device for automatically mounting the parts is used to improve the production efficiency. Further, in order to improve the efficiency of mounting the parts, a plurality of boards used for a plurality of printed circuit boards are assigned to a single original board from which a plurality of boards are obtainable.
A conventional method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-21909.
According to the prior art, however, the job of chip parts mounter to mount the parts cannot be further improved in efficiency. Also, the cost of the printed circuit board cannot be further reduced.